THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 23, 1994 TAG: 9411230446
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
The destroyer Briscoe's radio crackled with distant cries of ``mayday'' and ``abandon ship'' as Cmdr. Andrew J. Pitts and his crew steamed at full speed toward the burning Egyptian ferry.
It was near midnight when the Briscoe heard the radio calls from 25 miles away in the Gulf of Suez. The ferry, they learned, was carrying hundreds of people.
Pitts, bringing his slumbering crew to alert, ordered the Briscoe's helicopter into the air to peer through the smoke-filled sky.
He equipped lookouts with night-vision goggles so the ship could maneuver around dozens of empty life rafts dropped from the ferry.
``It was becoming painfully obvious that we were in the midst of a major disaster at sea,'' he later wrote.
A disaster, indeed: Some 30 people died and 50 were injured in the May 19 fire. But hundreds of others survived, thanks in part to the heroic rescue operation that the Briscoe's crew launched that evening and stayed with into the next day.
On Tuesday, the Navy formally thanked them, awarding 15 crew members the Navy/Marine Corps Medal for heroism. Along with the rescue role, the Briscoe served as a hospital and base of operations for the U.S. Coast Guard.
Most of the casualties came in the rush to abandon ship as the fire spread aboard the ferry Al-Qamar Al-Saudi Al-Misri.
The Briscoe, which had left Norfolk six weeks earlier for a six-month deployment to the Middle East, joined other U.S. warships, Egyptian navy ships and oil company vessels in the rescue. The ferry caught fire off Gebel Zeit, a port town 210 miles southeast of Cairo.
Pitts, in a written statement released Tuesday by the Navy, said the efforts of his men could fill volumes - ``a testimony to the unselfish bravery of our sailors.''
In one incident, the crew of the Briscoe's helicopter offered help to a victim on the ferry but the victim declined the offer twice. In a third effort, the crew lowered a hoist and the victim tried to grab it but the ferry rolled and sank.
The victim clung to debris as a crew member, Petty Officer 2nd Class Dave Westheimer, was lowered into the water and helped guide the victim into the helicopter. The aircraft is from a Mayport, Fla., anti-submarine squadron.
In another rescue, the crew of a small boat from the Briscoe braved falling chunks of burning debris from the ferry to save a man hanging from the side.
``We saw a guy through the thick smoke hanging off a chain that held a lifeboat,'' Petty Officer 2nd Class Aaron Densley wrote, in the same report. ``The captain was afraid the vessel was going to capsize so we knew the guy had to be rescued quickly. We nosed up toward him and I quickly snagged him into the boat.''
There were 505 passengers and 83 crew members aboard the ferry, which was packed with families heading home for the Eid el-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice. The most important holiday on the Islamic calendar, it commemorates the prophet Abraham's sacrifice of a lamb after God spared his son and marks the climax of the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.
Pitts said the hours spent rescuing the passengers ``practically defy description.''
As explosions went off all around them, Briscoe's small boats worked their way inside the sinking hulk.
Seaman Chad Norris was on a boat that moved into the stern, where people were jumping into the water.
``They would send two of us to bring each person to the boat because these people couldn't swim,'' he said. ``I saved about six people that way.''
Perhaps the most daring account was from Boat Signalman 1st Class Tidera Griffin.
Griffin saw a woman yelling down at him from the ferry.
``She gave her baby over to this guy and we didn't know if he was going to jump with it, or what,'' wrote Griffin.
``He stepped out to the edge and we told him to drop the baby. I caught the baby and couldn't believe it was not injured. I took the baby along with a few others to the tug and then headed out to get some more people.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photos by TAMARA VONINSKI
Staff photos
Boat Signalman 1st Class Tidera Griffin caught a baby dropped from
the sinking ferry. Then, he said, he ``headed out to get some more
people.''
Some 30 people died and 50 were hurt in the sinking. But hundreds
survived, partly because of the Briscoe.
Those awarded the Navy/Marine Corps Medal on Tuesday are:
Lt. Charles L. Sellers
Lt. j.g. Ned A. Rucker
Chief Petty Officer David F. Eastham
First Class Petty Officer Edward P. Benzing
Second Class Petty Officer Jeffrey S. Walker
Second Class Petty Officer William T. Miller
Seaman Chad D. Norris
Seaman Sean M. O'Leary
First Class Petty Officer Tidera M. Griffin
Seaman Apprentice Dustin R. Sweatman
Seaman Recruit Shawn L. Bentley
Third Class Petty Officer Roger A. Lashua
Third Class Petty Officer Emmett R. Deal
Second Class Petty Officer George E. Mick Jr.
First Class Petty Officer Michael H. Lundie
by CNB